CN117979312A

CN117979312A - Method, terminal device, network device, medium and program product for communication

Info

Publication number: CN117979312A
Application number: CN202211313613.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 罗青全
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-10-25
Filing date: 2022-10-25
Publication date: 2024-05-03
Also published as: WO2024088278A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, terminal device, network device, medium and program product for communication. In the method, a terminal device determines that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping. The terminal device determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to a plurality of resource block ranges. Further, the terminal device transmits the uplink channel based on a plurality of transmission configurations. As such, embodiments of the present disclosure enable a terminal device to adjust a transmission configuration according to an actual bandwidth range of a frequency hopping resource block, rather than according to a bandwidth configured for the terminal device. In this way, the terminal device can achieve the energy saving effect.

Description

Method, terminal device, network device, medium and program product for communication

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly to a method, terminal device, network device, computer readable storage medium and computer program product for communication.

Background

With the development of communication technology, several ways of scheduling channel resources for terminal devices have been introduced. In one approach, a terminal device supports processing the entire carrier bandwidth, and the channel resources of the terminal device are distributed in the carrier bandwidth for the terminal device.

To further increase the communication capacity, the size of the carrier bandwidth has been extended to a larger level such that some terminal devices no longer support processing the entire carrier bandwidth. In another way of scheduling channel resources in this regard, the channel resources of the terminal device are distributed in a portion of the carrier Bandwidth, and this portion is also referred to as a partial Bandwidth (BWP). However, even though BWP is a part of the carrier bandwidth, operating on the entire BWP bandwidth may result in relatively large resource consumption, such as device power consumption, for the terminal device. It should be appreciated that the BWP bandwidth is only one example of a bandwidth where the terminal device is configured, and the above analysis of the BWP bandwidth is equally applicable to other bandwidths where the terminal device is configured, either existing or to be defined in the future. Accordingly, in a more general sense, the corresponding operation and handling of the terminal device over the configured bandwidth is necessary to be further optimized. Furthermore, how the network side schedules channels in the bandwidth allocated to the terminal device is also a key aspect.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method for communication, a terminal device, a network device, a computer readable storage medium and a computer program product for improving the energy saving level of the terminal device.

In a first aspect, a method of communication is provided. In the method, a terminal device determines that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping. The terminal device determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to a plurality of resource block ranges. Further, the terminal device transmits an uplink channel based on the plurality of transmission configurations. In this way, the terminal device can autonomously determine the corresponding transmission configuration from the resource block range of each hop in the frequency hopping, so that the terminal device does not have to perform radio frequency operations within the entire bandwidth for the frequency hopping at all times. In this way, the device power consumption of the terminal device is significantly reduced and the normal transmission of the entire channel is ensured as well.

In some implementations, the transmitting, by the terminal device, the uplink channel includes: the terminal equipment generates a transmission configuration instruction for a transmission device of the terminal equipment based on the transmission configuration in the plurality of transmission configurations, and the transmission configuration instruction indicates a resource block range corresponding to the transmission configuration in the plurality of resource block ranges to the transmission device. Further, the terminal device uses the transmit configuration instruction to drive the transmitting device to transmit the uplink channel over the corresponding resource block range. In this way, the terminal equipment drives the transmitting device to perform radio frequency transmission on a certain resource block range instead of all frequency bandwidths supported by the radio frequency device through the transmitting configuration instruction indicating the resource block range, so that the power consumption of the radio frequency device is reduced.

In some implementations, the transmitting device includes at least one of a power amplifier, digital predistortion, average power tracking, and envelope tracking device. In this way, based on the corresponding transmit configuration described above, the power amplifier, digital predistortion, average power tracking, the consumption voltage of the envelope tracking devices can be reduced, thereby reducing the power consumption of these radio frequency devices.

In some implementations, the plurality of resource block ranges are distributed within a portion of the bandwidth BWP of the terminal device, and a bandwidth of each of the plurality of resource block ranges is less than a bandwidth of the BWP. In this way, the terminal device does not have to perform radio frequency operations within the configured complete BWP, but further performs radio frequency operations with a smaller bandwidth of the resource block range, thereby reducing power consumption.

In some implementations, the uplink channel includes at least one of: physical uplink control channel PUCCH, physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, sounding reference signal SRS, and physical uplink access channel PRACH. In this way, the terminal device may transmit different frequency hops for these channels through different transmission configurations, thereby reducing power consumption.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided. In the method, a terminal device receives scheduling information for scheduling a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. The terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for a set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. Further, if the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device transmits the set of uplink channels based on an equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels, the equivalent bandwidth including a bandwidth between an upper frequency limit resource block and a lower frequency limit resource block for transmitting the set of uplink channels. In this way, the terminal device can determine, based on the scheduling information, that the set of uplink channels can be transmitted with a reduced bandwidth instead of a configured bandwidth. In this way, if the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device may further adjust the transmission configuration to reduce device power consumption.

In some implementations, the method further includes: if the terminal device determines that the reduced bandwidth transmission is not performed for the set of uplink channels, the terminal device transmits the set of uplink channels based on a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device. In this way, the terminal device may still be able to transmit a set of uplink channels using the configured partial bandwidth if the condition for performing reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels is not met.

In some implementations, the determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission includes: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. If the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In the case where the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal

The device determines from a time perspective to perform reduced bandwidth transmissions to reserve sufficient time for other necessary processing for a set of uplink channel transmissions.

In some implementations, the determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission includes: the terminal device determines a first time period between a first point in time when scheduling information is received and a second point in time when transmission of a set of uplink channels is started, and the terminal device determines a second time period required to obtain a transport block size for the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. Further, in the case where the difference between the first time period and the second time period is greater than or equal to the third time period required to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In case the difference is smaller than said third duration, the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device can ensure that reduced bandwidth transmissions are performed again on the basis of obtaining the necessary parameters for the set of uplink channels.

In some implementations, the determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission includes: the terminal equipment determines a third time point, and the duration between the third time point and the second time point of starting to transmit the group of uplink channels is greater than or equal to a third duration required by the terminal equipment to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission; the terminal device determining whether a transport block size for the set of uplink channels has been obtained based on scheduling information at the third point in time; if the terminal device has obtained the transport block size at the third point in time, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and if the terminal device does not obtain the transport block size at the third point in time, the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device can pre-configure a point in time according to the adjustment capability of the terminal device itself, and determine that reduced bandwidth transmission can be performed at the point in time.

In some implementations, the first point in time includes a point in time when the latest scheduling information of the scheduling information for the set of uplink channels is received, and the second point in time includes a point in time when the earliest transmitted uplink channel of the set of uplink channels. In this way, the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmissions between the latest scheduling information associated with the plurality of consecutive slots and the earliest channel scheduled by the scheduling information. In this way, it is ensured that reduced bandwidth transmissions are determined to be performed for the entire transmission envelope being scheduled. The transmission envelope comprises a plurality of consecutive time slots or a portion of the plurality of consecutive time slots used by the terminal device for channel transmission in Time Division Duplex (TDD) communication with the network device.

In some implementations, the above-described transmission configuration includes at least one of: the method comprises the steps of sampling data of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a digital chip of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a radio frequency front end of the terminal equipment, the working bandwidth of the digital chip, the working bandwidth of the radio frequency front end, the working voltage of the digital chip, the working voltage of the radio frequency front end, the working frequency of the digital chip and the working frequency of the radio frequency front end. In this way, if it is determined to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device can adjust the above transmission configuration in accordance with the equivalent bandwidth, thereby adapting the corresponding means in the terminal device to the equivalent bandwidth. Further, the power consumption of the terminal device may be reduced as the reduced bandwidth is reduced.

In some implementations, the method further includes: after the terminal device adjusts the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device receives further scheduling information for scheduling the second uplink channel; the terminal device determines whether the transmission bandwidth of the second uplink channel is within the equivalent bandwidth; the terminal device determining whether the transmission of the second uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels; and if the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels, the terminal device performs reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels and the second uplink channel. In this way, if additional scheduling information associated with the consecutive slots is received, the terminal device may consider performing reduced channel transmissions for the scheduled second uplink channel along with the set of uplink channels, thereby reducing communication latency while reducing energy consumption.

In some implementations, the method further includes: if the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels, the terminal device relinquishes transmission of the second uplink channel. In this way, the terminal device avoids repeatedly adjusting the transmission configuration over a limited time.

In some implementations, the determining by the terminal device to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission includes: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines a difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the bandwidth of the BWP of the terminal device; if the terminal equipment determines that the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal equipment determines to execute reduced bandwidth transmission; and if the terminal device determines that the difference is less than the threshold, the terminal device determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device may perform reduced bandwidth transmission with an effective bandwidth sufficiently small relative to the bandwidth of the configured BWP, thereby avoiding a matched reduction in power consumption while the resources required to adjust the transmission configuration are consumed.

In some implementations, the scheduling information includes at least one of: an offset between a time slot in which the scheduling information is located and a time slot in which the scheduled uplink channel is located; frequency domain information for a set of uplink channels; time domain information for a set of uplink channels; a set of modulation coding schemes, MCSs, for uplink channels; a number of multiple-input multiple-output, MIMO, layers for a set of uplink channels; frequency hopping information for the set of uplink channels; an estimated transmit power of the set of uplink channels; and the actual transmit power of a set of uplink channels. In this way, the terminal device can determine an equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information, thereby determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels.

In some implementations, the uplink channel includes at least one of: physical uplink control channel PUCCH, physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, sounding reference signal SRS, and physical uplink access channel PRACH. In this way, the terminal device can determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmissions for these uplink channels, thereby reducing power consumption.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided. In the method, the network device determines that the terminal device is to be scheduled to transmit a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. The network device determines a location in the frequency domain of a set of frequency bands used to transmit the set of uplink channels to configure an equivalent bandwidth between an upper frequency limit and a lower frequency limit of the set of frequency bands. In this way, the network device, when scheduling different channels for the terminal devices, relatedly schedules one or more channels for one terminal device so that the one or more channels are as small as possible within the equivalent bandwidth. In this way, the terminal device can perform channel transmission within an equivalent bandwidth smaller than that of the configured BWP in order to reduce device power consumption.

In some implementations, determining the location of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain includes: for a first uplink channel of a set of uplink channels, the network device determining a first center frequency of a first frequency band of a set of frequency bands corresponding to the first uplink channel; and for a second uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device determining a second center frequency of a second frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the second uplink channel such that a frequency difference of the second center frequency from the first center frequency is less than a threshold. In this way, the terminal device reduces the equivalent bandwidth of a set of uplink channels by associatively determining the center frequencies of different ones of the set of uplink channels.

In some implementations, the first uplink channel includes at least one of: statically scheduled uplink channels; semi-statically scheduled uplink channels; and dynamically scheduled uplink channels. In this way, the terminal device may accordingly determine the first center frequency of the first uplink channel according to the characteristics of the differently scheduled uplink channels.

In some implementations, the first uplink channel is a dynamically scheduled uplink channel, and determining the first center frequency includes: the network equipment dynamically schedules the first uplink channel; and the network device storing a first center frequency of a first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel. In this way, when the network device schedules the first uplink channel not in accordance with the preconfigured frequency points but dynamically, the network device can determine the center frequency of the first uplink by storing the center frequency.

In some implementations, determining the location of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain includes: if, for a third uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device determines that a third frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the third uplink channel is a frequency hopping frequency range, the network device performs at least one of: the network device selects a smaller candidate frequency range from among a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range, and the network device determines a third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range such that a frequency difference of the third center frequency from the first center frequency is less than the threshold. In this way, the network device determines the frequency hopping range of one of the set of uplink channels for the terminal device in the manner described above, such that the equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels is reduced, thereby reducing device power consumption.

In some implementations, the uplink channel includes at least one of: physical uplink control channel PUCCH, physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, sounding reference signal SRS, and physical uplink access channel PRACH. In this way, the network can perform relevant scheduling for these uplink channels, thereby facilitating reduced power consumption by the terminal device.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device includes a processor and a memory storing instructions. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform any of the methods according to the first and second aspects and implementations thereof.

In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a network device is provided. The network device includes a processor and a memory storing instructions. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the network device to perform any of the methods according to the first and second aspects and implementations thereof.

In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer readable storage medium is provided. The computer readable storage medium stores instructions that, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform any of the methods of the first, second and third aspects and implementations thereof.

In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product comprises instructions which, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform any of the methods of the first, second and third aspects and implementations thereof.

It should be understood that the description in this summary is not intended to limit the critical or essential features of the disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description.

Drawings

1A-1B illustrate example communication network scenarios in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

Fig. 1C-1H illustrate example intervals between uplink and downlink according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1I-1J illustrate example frequency hopping patterns for PUCCH according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1K illustrates different partial bandwidths configured to a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1L-1O illustrate example frequency hopping patterns corresponding to different uplink channels according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1P-1R illustrate examples of a set of uplink channels scheduled in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates a signaling process for a terminal device to determine multiple transmit configurations in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3A-3B illustrate example resource block ranges for frequency hopping in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a signaling procedure for a terminal device to determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmission in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5A illustrates an example timing of scheduling information with a scheduled uplink channel according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5B-5E are diagrams of a plurality of a set of uplink channel transmissions and corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates a signaling process for a network device to configure a set of frequency bands in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7A-7H are diagrams of a plurality of sets of uplink channel transmissions scheduled by a network device and corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 shows a flowchart implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 shows a flowchart implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 illustrates a flow chart implemented at a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 shows a simplified block diagram of an example device of one possible implementation in an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 12 shows a simplified block diagram of an example device of one possible implementation in an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 13 shows a simplified block diagram of an example device of one possible implementation in an embodiment of the application.

The same or similar reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like components.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The specific methods of operation, functional descriptions, etc. in the method embodiments may also be applied in the apparatus embodiments or the system embodiments.

As shown in fig. 1, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applicable to a wireless communication system 100A, and in the communication network 100, a network device 110, a terminal device 120, and a terminal device 130 are shown.

It should be appreciated that the above wireless communication system may be applicable to both low frequency scenarios (sub 6G) and high frequency scenarios (above 6G). The application scenario of the wireless communication system includes, but is not limited to, a fifth generation system (5G), a New Radio (NR) communication system, and the like, an existing communication system or a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) system, and the like.

The terminal device 120 shown above may be a User Equipment (UE), a terminal (terminal), an access terminal, a terminal unit, a terminal station, a Mobile Station (MS), a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile terminal (mobile terminal), a wireless communication device, a terminal agent, a terminal device, or the like. The terminal device 120 may be a communication chip having a communication module, a vehicle having a communication function, an in-vehicle device (e.g., an in-vehicle communication apparatus, an in-vehicle communication chip), or the like. The terminal device 120 may be provided with wireless transceiver functionality that is capable of communicating (e.g., wirelessly communicating) with one or more network devices of one or more communication systems and receiving network services provided by the network devices, including, but not limited to, the network devices illustrated.

The terminal device 120 may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device with wireless communication functionality, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc.

The terminal device 120 may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet (pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned (SELF DRIVING), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (SMART GRID), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (SMART CITY), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), etc.

In addition, the terminal device 120 may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, or vehicle-mounted; the terminal device 120 may also be deployed on the water surface (e.g., a ship, etc.); terminal device 120 may also be deployed in the air (e.g., on an airplane, balloon, satellite, etc.). The network device may be an access network device (or access network site). The access network device refers to a device that provides a network access function, such as a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) base station, and so on. The network device 110 may include a Base Station (BS), or include a base station, a radio resource management device for controlling the base station, and the like. The network device 110 may also include relay stations (relay devices), access points, and base stations in 5G networks or NR base stations, base stations in future evolution PLMN networks, etc. Network device 110 may be a wearable device or an in-vehicle device. The network device 110 may also be a communication chip with a communication module.

For example, network device 110 includes, but is not limited to: a base station (G node B, gNB) in 5G, an evolved node B (eNB) in a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) system, a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a home base station (e.g., home evolved nodeB, or home node B, HNB), a baseband unit (baseBand unit, BBU), a transmission point (TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING point, TRP), a transmission point (TRANSMITTING POINT, TP), a mobile switching center, a global system for mobile communications (global aystem for mobile communication, GSM), or a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS) in a code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) network, a node base station (nodebase station, NB) in wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA), an evolved (evolutional) NB (eNB or eNodeB) in LTE, a base station device in a future 5G network, or an access network in the future, or a wearable device.

In some deployments, the network device may include centralized units (centralized unit, CUs) and (distributed units, DUs). The network device may also include an active antenna unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, AAU). The CUs implement part of the functions of the network device, the DUs implement part of the functions of the network device, e.g. the CUs are responsible for handling non-real time protocols and services, implementing radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), functions of the packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer. The DU is responsible for handling physical layer protocols and real-time services, and implements functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layer. The AAU realizes part of physical layer processing function, radio frequency processing and related functions of the active antenna. Since the information of the RRC layer may be eventually changed into or converted from the information of the PHY layer, under this architecture, higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or by the du+aau. It is understood that the network device may be a device comprising one or more of a CU node, a DU node, an AAU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in an access network (radio access network, RAN), or may be divided into network devices in a Core Network (CN), which the present application is not limited to. Examples of network devices include, but are not limited to, node bs (NodeB or NB), evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), next generation NodeB (gNB), transmit and Receive Points (TRP), remote Radio Units (RRU), radio Heads (RH), remote Radio Heads (RRH), IAB nodes, low power nodes such as femto nodes, pico nodes, reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS), network controlled repeaters, and the like

In addition, the network device 110 may be connected to a Core Network (CN) device, which may be used to provide core network services for the access network device 110 and the terminal device 120. The core network device may correspond to different devices under different systems. For example, in 3G the core network device may correspond to a serving Support Node (SGSN) of a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology (GENERAL PACKET), and/or a gateway Support Node (GATEWAY GPRS Support Node, GGSN) of GPRS. In 4G the core network device may correspond to a mobility management entity (mobility MANAGEMENT ENTITY, MME) and/or a serving gateway (SERVING GATEWAY, S-GW). The core network device may correspond to an access and mobility management function (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF), a session management function (session management function, SMF), or a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) in 5G.

As described above, carrier bandwidth has been extended to a larger level as communication technologies develop and demands for increasing communication capacity continue to increase. For example, in the LTE communication system, a single carrier bandwidth is set to only 20MHz, and thus it can be assumed that all terminal devices support processing the entire carrier bandwidth. In this way, the network device can arbitrarily schedule uplink transmissions for the terminal device within the entire carrier bandwidth of 20MHz without regard to whether the terminal device is capable of supporting. However, in NR communication systems, the carrier bandwidth has been extended to potentially reach or exceed 400MHz, for example, to potentially reach 1GHz, making it difficult for terminal devices to support operation over the entire carrier bandwidth. Accordingly, the concept of partial bandwidth BWP is further introduced, the bandwidth of BWP being less than or equal to the carrier bandwidth and being supportable by the terminal device. The network side may schedule uplink transmissions for the terminal device based on BWP. In this way, the terminal device can perform channel processing on the configured bandwidth of the BWP.

In some cases, to help a terminal device save power, the terminal device may be configured with multiple BWP with different bandwidths, and when the terminal device does not need to perform a large amount of data transmission, the terminal device may perform uplink channel transmission on the BWP with a smaller bandwidth. However, switching to BWP with small bandwidth may not be normal for the terminal device. When the terminal device runs an application program having a large throughput demand, the terminal device may need to perform a channel transmission or reception operation for the configured entire BWP. This will result in that the entire transmission link in the terminal device, including baseband processing, intermediate frequency processing or radio frequency processing, always needs to be adapted to BWP with a larger bandwidth. Accordingly, the terminal device needs to allocate a relatively higher operating voltage to the corresponding device or open more operating paths, which may keep the power consumption of the terminal device at a higher level. It should be appreciated that the BWP bandwidth is only one example of a bandwidth where the terminal device is configured, and the above analysis of the BWP bandwidth is equally applicable to other bandwidths where the terminal device is configured, either existing or to be defined in the future.

To further address the above issues, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for communication. In the method, a terminal device determines that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping. The terminal device determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to a plurality of resource block ranges. Further, the terminal device transmits an uplink channel based on the plurality of transmission configurations. In this way, the terminal device can autonomously determine the corresponding transmission configuration from the resource block range of each hop in the frequency hopping, so that the terminal device does not have to perform radio frequency operations within the entire bandwidth for the frequency hopping at all times. In this way, the device power consumption of the terminal device is significantly reduced and the normal transmission of the entire channel is ensured as well.

It should be appreciated that although described above primarily based on BWP configured for a terminal device, embodiments of the present disclosure may be applicable to any other communication scenario, without any limitation. For a clearer discussion of the disclosed embodiments of the present application, the disclosed embodiments of the present application are described with reference to fig. 1 to 13.

Fig. 1A illustrates an example communication network scenario 100A in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. In the communication network scenario 100A, a network device 110, a terminal device 120, and a terminal device 130 are shown. More specifically, terminal devices 120 and 130 may be served by network device 110. For example, network device 110 may configure respective BWP for terminal device 120 and terminal device 130, respectively, through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, and schedule uplink channel transmissions for the respective terminal devices (e.g., terminal device 120) within the configured BWP. It should be understood that the number of terminal devices, network devices and cells shown in fig. 1 is only by way of example. There may be more or fewer terminal devices, network devices, and cells, which the present disclosure does not impose any limitation.

By way of example only and not by way of limitation, terminal device 120 may configure initial BWP to terminal device 120 by network device 110 prior to network access. Network device 110 may also configure up to 4 BWP configurations per carrier, as follows:

Initial BWP: BWP configured for an initial access phase of the terminal device; the signal and channel at the Initial access are transmitted in the Initial BWP.

DEDICATED BWP: the terminal device configures BWP in an RRC connected state; up to 4 DEDICATED BWP terminal devices can be configured for 1 terminal device. The network is configured to the terminal device through RRC signaling. Frequency division duplex, FDD, is configurable with a maximum of 4 Downlink (DL) DEDICATED BWP and 4 Uplink (UL) DEDICATED BWP. Time Division Duplexing (TDD) is also configurable with a maximum of 4 DL DEDICATED BWP's and 4 UL Dedicated BWP's.

Active BWP: the BWP activated by the terminal device at a certain time in the RRC connected state is 1 of the above DEDICATED BWP. In some cases, the terminal device can only have 1 Active BWP in RRC connected state at a time.

Default BWP: when the BWP inactivity timer of the terminal device expires while the terminal device is in the RRC connected state, the terminal device switches back to the default BWP. The Default BWP may be 1 in DEDICATED BWP, or the network device 110 may also indicate to the terminal device 120 which configured DEDICATED BWP is the Default BWP through RRC signaling.

For ease of discussion only and not by way of any limitation, the present disclosure also introduces the following concepts regarding BWP:

RRC configures BWP bandwidth: i.e. the RRC-configured BWP bandwidth selected by the UE according to predefined criteria, e.g. when an Initial BWP is in operation, the RRC-configured BWP is the Initial BWP. When one BWP in DEDICATED BWP of the network-activated terminal device operates, the DEDICATED BWP bandwidth is the current RRC-configured BWP.

Equivalent BWP bandwidth: the bandwidth within the smallest effective Resource Block (RB) and the largest effective RB of the channel scheduled on the transmittable slot of TDD. The equivalent BWP bandwidth may be a bandwidth calculated in real time for each emission envelope. For example, network device 110 configures the subcarrier spacing (SCS) to 30KHz, assuming that there is only one channel within one transmission envelope and that the channel is configured by network device 110 to have 20 RBs, the equivalent BWP bandwidth is 7.2MHz = 20 x 12 x 30KHz. In the present disclosure, the equivalent BWP bandwidth may also be referred to as an equivalent bandwidth, which is not limited herein.

Operational BWP bandwidth: the bandwidth actually configured by the terminal device 120 for the transmission channel or signal, in some cases, depends on the terminal device 120 itself. Typically, the terminal device 120 uses the operating bandwidths as shown in tables 1A-1B below, and the terminal device 120 may also employ smaller granularity units. Table 1 defines the bandwidths that 5G can use in the sub6G band. Table 2 defines the bandwidths that 5G can use in the high frequency band. The default operating BWP bandwidth configured by the terminal device 120 is the RRC-configured BWP bandwidth described above. For example, terminal device 120 uses an Initial BWP bandwidth=20 MHz at the Initial access, and terminal device 120 defaults to an operating BWP bandwidth of 20MHz. When the RRC connected state (i.e., the network is in a stable data transfer state) is entered between the terminal device 120 and the network device 110, bwp=100 MHz is selected to operate as Active BWP, and the default operating BWP bandwidth of the terminal device 120 is 100MHz at this time. In the present disclosure, the terminal device 120 may autonomously reduce the bandwidth, and specific processing of reducing the bandwidth will be described in detail in the subsequent embodiments of the present disclosure, which is not described herein. For example, if the end device 120 calculates an equivalent BWP bandwidth (or equivalent bandwidth) of 7.2MHz, the end device 120 may select a minimum operating bandwidth capable of covering 7.2 MHz. For example, the terminal device 120 may select 10MHz in table 1A as the operating bandwidth. The terminal device 120 may also be set at a smaller granularity, such as the terminal device 120 may set a smaller granularity of operating bandwidth than the table. For example, 8MHz or 9MHz is used as the operating BWP bandwidth.

TABLE 1A

TABLE 1B

Regarding the network device 110 scheduling channel transmissions for the terminal device 120, in a 5G network, there are a static configuration mode, a semi-static configuration mode, and a dynamic configuration mode for the network device 110 to configure physical layer parameters to the terminal device 120. The static configuration mode means that the RRC signaling configuration update is effective, and parameters sent by the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 are analyzed by the RRC layer and then sent to the physical layer. Semi-static configuration means that the network device 110 configures parameters to the terminal device 120 with RRC signaling, but is not activated. The network device 110 waits for the terminal device 120 to receive the DCI command and report the new radio access control NR-MAC (NMAC) before issuing the activation command, where the activation time point is 3ms after the terminal device 120 receives the DCI command, that is, the delay amount from receiving the DCI validation command to actually validating is at least 3 ms.

The dynamic configuration means that the network device 110 uses DCI to schedule channel transmission for the terminal device 120. The interval between terminal device 120 from receiving DCI to transmitting scheduled channels of terminal device 120 needs to respect processing capability 1 or processing capability2 capability scheduling and to work with K1 or K2 scheduling advance and configuration signaling validation of Tproc,1 corresponding to processing capability 1 or Tproc,2 corresponding to processing capability2, where the K1/K2 scheduling advance is controlled by the network. Specifically, the capacity schedule processing capability or processing capability is defined according to a predetermined condition, and will not be described herein. K1 refers to the number of slots (slots) between the downlink shared channel PDSCH and the uplink control channel PUCCH feedback carrying ACK. K2 refers to the number of spaced slots between downlink control channel PDCCH and uplink shared channel PUSCH transmissions. Tproc,1 refers to the time interval between PDSCH and PUCCH feedback carrying ACK, i.e. the PUCCH first symbol transmission interval received from the PDSCH last symbol is not less than Tproc,1.Tproc,2 refers to the number of time symbols (symbols) between PDCCH and PUSCH transmissions, i.e. the PUSCH first symbol transmission interval received from the PDCCH last symbol needs to be no less than Tproc,2.

In some cases, when K1 or K2 is equal to 0, the interval between the terminal device 120 from receiving DCI to the scheduled channel of the terminal device 120 transmission needs to respect Tproc,1 or Tproc,2. In some other cases, when K1 or K2 is greater than or equal to 1, the interval between the terminal device 120 from receiving DCI to the scheduled channel for terminal device 120 transmission also needs to comply with Tproc,1 or Tproc,2. (DCI dynamic scheduling in the current standard, UE receives air interface transmission from air interface, processing capability 1/processing capability 2 defined in 38.214, tproc,1 and Tproc,2 defined in 38.214, section 5.3 and section 6.4.) specifically, fig. 1B shows a scenario where a terminal device or UE communicates with a network device or RAN over an air interface (AIR INTERFACE).

For clarity of discussion only, fig. 1C-1F illustrate example intervals between uplink and downlink according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 1C is a diagram illustrating a symbol interval between a PDSCH and a PUCCH when the PDCCH and the PDSCH are the same starting symbol. Fig. 1D is a diagram illustrating a symbol interval between a PDSCH and a PUCCH when PDCCH and PDSCH are not the same starting symbol. Fig. 1E is a diagram illustrating symbol intervals between PDSCH and PUCCH when PDCCH and PDSCH are not in the same slot. Fig. 1F is a diagram illustrating a symbol interval between PDCCH and PUSCH.

Fig. 1G illustrates a proportioning of an example Uplink Slot (Uplink Slot) and a Downlink Slot (Downlink Slot) in the case where the terminal device 120 performs Time Division Duplex (TDD) communication with the network device 110. The ratio between UL slots and DL slots shown in fig. 1G is 4:1, 7:3, and 8:2, where the uplink may be transmitted on 2-3 slots.

Fig. 1H illustrates a schematic diagram of a K-value schedule from the receipt of a transmission, i.e., slotN +k received from SlotN. As shown in fig. 1H, downlink Slot represents a Downlink Slot in TDD communication, uplink Slot represents an Uplink Slot in TDD communication, and Special Slot represents a Special Slot in TDD communication, which may be used as an Uplink Slot or a Downlink Slot or both. Without any limitation, in the present disclosure, the continuous channel transmission scheduled in TDD may be referred to as a transmission envelope, within which multiple time slots may be spanned, including multiple types of channels. For example, for a terminal device, one transmission envelope may include SRS signals, PUCCH channels, PUSCH channels, and the like. Moreover, example resource assignments for these channels in a transmit envelope are discussed below with respect to fig. 1N-1F, and are not described in detail herein.

As mentioned above, when network device 110 and terminal device 120 communicate in a configured BWP (i.e., configured BWP), frequency hopping transmissions are typically employed within the configured BWP to obtain frequency domain diversity gain to combat frequency selective fading of the air interface. To facilitate an understanding of the present disclosure, an example manner of frequency hopping communications between network device 110 and terminal device 120 is discussed below.

Fig. 1I-1J illustrate example frequency hopping patterns for PUCCH according to embodiments of the present disclosure. From LTE to NR, the network device 110 configures the BWP bandwidth for the terminal device 120 with RRC signaling. Within the RRC-configured BWP bandwidth range, the network device 110 schedules channel transmissions for each terminal device within the entire bandwidth based on all users residing in the serving cell provided by the network device 110 and the scheduling algorithm: including resource allocation for physical random access channel PRACH transmission, SRS transmission, PUCCH transmission, and PUSCH transmission. Taking PUCCH transmission as an example, PUCCH frequency hopping may frequency hop within a slot or frequency hop between slots, where frequency hopping within a slot refers to PUCCH using two RBs segmented in time within the same slot, each RB occupying half of the symbols in this slot, as shown in fig. 1G-1H.

As described above, in order to help the terminal device save power, the terminal device may be configured with a plurality of BWP having different bandwidths. Fig. 1K illustrates different partial bandwidths BWP configured to a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1K, the terminal device is configured with BWP1 and BWP2 having different bandwidths. For example only, if the network monitors that the upstream and downstream traffic of the terminal device is relatively small, the network sets a traffic threshold such that when the flow direction of the terminal device is less than the threshold, it switches to a relatively small BWP2, e.g., BWP2 = 20MHz/30MHz/50MHz bandwidth. The network configures the terminal equipment with small flow to work on a small bandwidth, and when the terminal equipment works on the small bandwidth, the terminal equipment can reduce the sampling data rate and the working frequency and voltage of data sampling so as to reduce the power consumption. For example, 1 terminal device may be configured with 2 uplink DEDICATED BWP (DEDICATED UL BWP) and 2 downlink DEDICATED BWP (DEDICATED DL BWP) through RRC signaling. Of 2 DEDICATED BWP, 1 is full bandwidth BWP 1=100 MHz, and 1 is narrow bandwidth BWP 2=20 MHz (also referred to as power saving BWP). DEDICATED UL BWP and DEDICATED DL BWP are separately configured. BWP is used in pairs, i.e. the terminal device upstream and downstream use either full bandwidth BWP1 or smaller bandwidth BWP2 simultaneously.

However, when the terminal device operates on BWP (e.g., BWP 1), the terminal device does not always transmit and receive channels occupying the entire BWP 1. For this reason, the present disclosure proposes a way to further reduce the power consumption of the device.

Returning to frequency hopping transmission for channel transmission, the terminal device typically frequency hops around the entire bandwidth in configuring BWP to transmit periodic SRS signals. As shown in fig. 1L, the terminal device transmits SRS in a certain period, and frequency-loops transmission over the entire BWP bandwidth. Specifically, the terminal device performs full bandwidth round robin transmission of SRS, typically when bwp1=100 MHz is allocated after access, SRS is transmitted in 1/4 or 1/8 or 1/16 cycle of 100 MHz. In some other cases, the terminal device directly performs full bandwidth transmission, typically during initial access, and transmits full bandwidth for SRS once at the time of parameter configuration of BWP 0.

Fig. 1M and 1N illustrate frequency hopping patterns for PUCCH according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. For the resource scheduling of the PUCCH, the PUCCH allocation resources are generally at the upper and lower ends of the BWP bandwidth (as shown in fig. 1J), or some RB resources for transmitting the PUCCH are added in the middle; such as being allocated at both ends RB of BWP1 and both ends RB of BWP2 (as shown in fig. 1K).

Fig. 1O illustrates a frequency hopping scheme for PUSCH according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Regarding resource scheduling of PUSCH, the configured BWP bandwidth for one terminal device PUSCH may be shared with other terminal devices, and may or may not be frequency hopped within a PUSCH may slot. From the terminal device perspective, PUSCH is allocated randomly within BWP. Even in the intra-field test static environment, PUSCH is randomly allocated within BWP in a single terminal device scenario. As shown in fig. 1O, PUSCH at bwp=100 MHz is exemplarily allocated in time and frequency domains.

Fig. 1P-1R illustrate examples of a set of uplink channels scheduled in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The consecutive SUU slots in fig. 1P-1R may be one of the transmit envelopes discussed in fig. 1F. As shown in fig. 1N-1R, there is SRS transmission on the S slot, PUSCH transmission on the first U slot, and PUCCH frequency hopping transmission on the second U slot. These three consecutive channels serve as a transmission envelope for which the terminal device typically performs data processing based on the entire BWP bandwidth. However, only Resource Elements (REs) allocated for transmission of the corresponding channels actually carry valid data, for example REs corresponding to the hatched portions in fig. 1N and 1P. None of the other REs that are not allocated for transmission of the corresponding channel carry valid data, e.g., REs corresponding to the blank portions in fig. 1N and 1P. In order to be compatible with the entire transmission envelope, the terminal device will also have a sampled data output on RE units in the BWP bandwidth that are not allocated for channel transmission. Because the terminal device needs to perform operations such as data sampling, encoding, data predistortion processing (DPD) for a transmission signal, average Power Tracking (APT), envelope Tracking (ET), etc., based on the configured BWP bandwidth.

Although as described above, the network device may configure the terminal device with a small bandwidth BWP or a large bandwidth BWP when a small or large traffic occurs. But from the practical network test effect the network device needs to equalize the traffic of all user devices and thus the threshold for handover of different bandwidths BWP is very low. The terminal device remains resident at a large bandwidth over 90% of the time. Typically, the network device balances the overall upstream and downstream traffic, while the vast majority of the time for an individual terminal device resides under large bandwidth, such as a terminal device running applications such as games, video streaming, etc. These workplace networks are all scheduled with large bandwidths, which may result in effectively low bandwidth usage being scheduled to a single terminal device.

At large bandwidths, the corresponding RB ranges are random for each type of channel scheduled by the network device for the terminal device, different channels in one transmission envelope, channels in different time slots. In some cases, because of channel hopping, the network has no constraint on RB allocation of channels within the BWP large bandwidth, and it is not necessary to carry significant data, i.e., nor transmit energy, to configure a vast majority of REs within the BWP bandwidth. However, if the terminal device operates with a large bandwidth on configuration BWP, operations from data encoding to modulation, to data sampling, to DPD, APT, ET of the data transmission front-end, etc., are all operating with the large bandwidth of the network configuration at all times. A large bandwidth represents a large data traffic, which requires a higher operating frequency/operating voltage processing, which leads to an increase in power consumption of the terminal device.

For some of the problems referred to above and not limited to them, the present disclosure also proposes the following embodiments in order to further reduce the device power consumption of the terminal device.

Fig. 2 illustrates a signaling process 200 for a terminal device to determine multiple transmit configurations in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. For clarity of discussion, and without any limitation, signaling process 200 will be discussed in conjunction with fig. 1.

In signaling process 200, terminal device 120 determines (210) that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping. Additionally or alternatively, it may also be the terminal device 130 that determines that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping, which the present disclosure does not impose any limitation. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 receives (215) scheduling information from the network device 110 that schedules the uplink transmission, based on which the terminal device 120 determines that an uplink channel is to be transmitted. Additionally, the scheduling information instructs the terminal device 120 to transmit the uplink channel over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping.

The terminal device 120 determines (220) a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges. The terminal device 120 then transmits (230) the uplink channel based on the determined plurality of transmit configurations. For a clearer discussion, a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to a plurality of resource block ranges are discussed with reference to fig. 3A and 3B.

Fig. 3A-3B illustrate example resource block ranges for frequency hopping in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 3A, bandwidth 310 is a configured BWP bandwidth that network device 110 configures to terminal device 120, and network device 110 schedules two RB ranges for hopping transmission channels in one uplink slot, that is, two RB ranges corresponding to the channel first hop and channel second hop shown in fig. 3A and 3B, in configured BWP bandwidth 310. It should be appreciated that although fig. 3A and 3B are discussed with reference to configuring BWP bandwidth, embodiments of the present disclosure may extend the communications scenario of any other frequency allocation, as well, and the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. Further, although fig. 3A and 3B illustrate only two RB ranges, this is for ease of discussion only, as more or fewer RB ranges may also be present, which is not limiting in any way by the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 3A, network device 110 may configure the channel transmission of terminal device 120 to be a hopping transmission within one uplink slot, e.g., configure the channel first hop to start with a BWP bandwidth 310 start RB and configure the channel second hop to end with a BWP bandwidth end RB. In some embodiments, the plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping are distributed within the configured BWP 310 for the terminal device 120, and the bandwidth of each of the plurality of resource block ranges (e.g., the resource block range for the first hop of the channel) is less than the configured BWP bandwidth 310. In some embodiments, terminal device 120 transmits instructions to its own radio frequency devices (e.g., power amplifier PA and/or data predistortion process DPD devices) to perform radio frequency transmission in accordance with the configured BWP bandwidth, although terminal device 120 need not transmit valid data throughout the BWP. In an example, the terminal device 120 configures the channel with a transmit configuration instruction for configuration of transmitting devices such as PA and/or DPD. One transmission configuration instruction is employed as shown in fig. 3A, and the RB valid range indicated by the transmission configuration instruction needs to include the RB range of the channel first hop and the channel second hop. Accordingly, the PA transmission range also needs to contain the RB of the first hop and the RB range of the second hop. In order to ensure that the RB transmit power at the edge of the entire BWP bandwidth meets the protocol requirements, the voltage of the large bandwidth transmit configuration indication needs to be boosted relatively high. This may result in higher power consumption by the terminal device 120.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as described above, the terminal device 120 determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges. For example, referring to fig. 3B, the terminal device 120 determines a first transmission configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-1 for the first hop of the channel and a second transmission configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-2 for the second hop of the channel, respectively. Then, in some embodiments, the terminal device 120 generates a first transmit configuration instruction for a transmit means of the terminal device 120 based on a transmit configuration of the plurality of transmit configurations (e.g., a first transmit configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-1), the first transmit configuration instruction indicating to the transmit means the resource block range 320-1 of the plurality of resource block ranges corresponding to the transmit configuration. In the present disclosure, a transmitting device includes all processing devices in a device for radio frequency transmission or reception, including but not limited to PA, antenna array assembly, phase shifter, DPD, and the like. The terminal device 120 uses the transmit configuration instructions to drive the transmitting means to transmit uplink channels over the corresponding said resource block range. In some embodiments, the uplink channel is an uplink channel scheduled by the scheduling information received by the terminal device 120 at 215. Additionally, the terminal device 120 generates a second transmission configuration instruction for a transmission means of the terminal device 120 based on the second transmission configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-1, the second transmission configuration instruction indicating to the transmission means the resource block range 320-2 corresponding to the transmission configuration among the plurality of resource block ranges. In this way, the terminal device 120 may have its radio frequency device configure the radio frequency device only according to the bandwidth of the resource block range of each hop, rather than configuring the BWP bandwidth, when performing each hop of the channel transmission.

In this way, transmission of the first hop of the channel may use one transmit configuration instruction to drive the radio frequency device to perform the transmission with a bandwidth that encompasses the range of resource blocks of the first hop. The transmission of the second hop of the channel may reuse another transmit configuration instruction to drive the radio frequency device to perform the transmission with a bandwidth that encompasses the range of resource blocks of the second hop. The RB ranges of the channel segment hopping perform transmission using different transmission configurations, respectively. Each transmission configuration contains a range that is the effective RB range for each hop transmission. Thus, each transmission configuration instruction needs to ensure that the effective RB transmission power meets the requirement, so that the voltage requirement of the transmitting device is lower than that of the transmitting device adopting the BWP bandwidth, thereby reducing the equipment power consumption of the terminal equipment. Thus, by employing segmented transmission for the frequency hopping channel, the transmit instructions are determined independently for each segment of the active RB, such that the instructions may employ a voltage when the radio frequency device is configured by segmented transmission. Under the condition of realizing normal transmission of the whole channel, the power consumption of a transmitting device can be saved.

Not only is the transmit instruction configured separately for each segment of the frequency hopping transmission, in some embodiments, the terminal device 120 also adjusts the transmission configuration for configuring the BWP bandwidth to perform the bandwidth reduction transmission for the frequency characteristics of the configured uplink channel in one transmission envelope, thereby reducing the device power consumption. For clarity of discussion, specific embodiments are discussed with reference to fig. 4-5E.

Fig. 4 illustrates a signaling procedure 400 for a terminal device to determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmissions in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. For clarity of discussion, and without any limitation, signaling process 400 will be discussed in conjunction with fig. 1.

In the signaling procedure 400, the terminal device 120 receives (410) scheduling information for scheduling a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may receive the scheduling information in the PDCCH. Additionally, the terminal device 120 may obtain the scheduling information in DCI. For clarity of discussion, scheduling information and scheduled uplink channels are discussed with reference to fig. 5A.

Fig. 5A illustrates an example timing of scheduling information with a scheduled uplink channel according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The scheduling for uplink transmission may be a periodic configuration or DCI dynamic scheduling. As shown in fig. 5A, special slots (Special slots) are scheduled with periodic SRS transmissions. Further, on an UPLINK SLOT (UPLINK SLOT), UPLINK channel transmissions are dynamically scheduled by DCI, which is received in the PDCCH in this example. The dynamically scheduled uplink channel may be PUSCH, PUCCH, or dynamic SRS. Further, K in fig. 5A may be any of K1 or K2 discussed above. As further shown in fig. 5A, the terminal device receives scheduling information for uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive slots in different PDCCHs. As described above, the uplink channel transmission in the plurality of consecutive time slots may be referred to in this disclosure as a transmit envelope 501. Additionally, in the example of fig. 5A, network device 110 schedules a portion of a SPECIAL SLOT (SPECIAL SLOT) for uplink transmission.

Returning to fig. 4, based on the scheduling information, the terminal device 120 determines (420) whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for a set of uplink channels. Then, if the terminal device 120 determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 transmits (430) a set of uplink channels based on an equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels, the equivalent bandwidth comprising a bandwidth between an upper frequency limit resource block and a lower frequency limit resource block for transmitting the set of uplink channels. For clarity of description, determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission and transmitting an uplink channel based on how equivalent bandwidth is discussed with reference to fig. 5B-5E.

Fig. 5B-5E are diagrams of a plurality of a set of uplink channel transmissions and corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 5B-5E, bandwidth 501 is the BWP bandwidth configured by network device 110 for terminal device 120, and bandwidths 510, 520, 530, and 540 are each equivalent equal widths of a set of uplink channels under different schedules. Additionally, as shown in fig. 5B-5E, the three consecutive SUU slots may be consecutive three slots for the transmit envelope 501 in fig. 5A. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmission depending on whether there is sufficient time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. For example, the terminal device 120 determines that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission based on the scheduling information. If the terminal device 120 determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. Otherwise, the terminal device 120 determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. In case the terminal device 120 determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 performs the scheduled set of uplink channel transmissions based on the bandwidth 501 of the configured BWP of the terminal device 120. Additionally or alternatively, the configured BWP bandwidth is a default bandwidth configuration for the terminal device 120 to perform the set of uplink channel transmissions. For example, the operating bandwidth of the chip logic and RF configuration is configured as a default.

Regarding the terminal device 120 determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device may determine whether there is sufficient time to adjust the transmission configuration for the equivalent bandwidth based on a first time period between a first point in time at which scheduling information is received and a second point in time at which transmission of the uplink channel is started. In some embodiments, the first point in time may be a point in time when the latest scheduling information of the scheduling information for the set of uplink channels is received, as shown at point in time 502 in fig. 5A. Additionally, the second point in time may be the point in time of the earliest transmitted uplink channel of the scheduled set of uplink channels (or one of the transmit envelopes), as shown by point in time 503 in fig. 5A. Between receiving the scheduling information and transmitting the scheduled set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 needs to complete the necessary data preparation and/or preprocessing, etc. For example, the terminal device derives a data block size (Tbsize) for a set of uplink channels to be transmitted based on the scheduling information. If there is enough time to adjust the transmission configuration for the equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channel transmissions (e.g., equivalent bandwidths shown at 510, 520, 530, and 540) after the necessary data preparation and/or data encapsulation processes are completed before the set of uplink channels begins to transmit, terminal device 120 may determine that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmissions.

Specifically, in some embodiments, the terminal device 120 determines a second time period required to obtain a transport block size for a set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. Then, if the difference between the first time period and the second time period is greater than or equal to the third time period required to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In some embodiments, the first time period refers to a time period between a first time point when the latest scheduling information in the received scheduling information is determined from the receiving scheduling terminal apparatus 120 and a second time point when the transmission of the set of uplink channels is started. The second time period refers to a time period required for the terminal device 120 to collect information and estimate the size of the data block. It should be appreciated that although this embodiment is discussed based on the time required to obtain the transport block size, the second time period is not limited to the time period required to obtain the transport block size. As technology advances, the second time period may be any other time period consumed by the preprocessing that the terminal device 120 must perform in order to transmit the scheduled set of uplink channel transmissions. With respect to the terminal device 120 performing data preparation and/or preprocessing, in some embodiments, the terminal device performs data quilt and/or preprocessing (e.g., estimation Tbsize) based on at least one of the following included in the scheduling information: frequency domain information of a set of uplink channels, time domain information of a set of uplink channels, modulation coding scheme MCS of a set of uplink channels, number of multiple input multiple output MIMO layers of a set of uplink channels, frequency hopping information of a set of uplink channels, estimated transmit power of a set of uplink channels, and actual transmit power of a set of uplink channels. Furthermore, the equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels described above may also be determined based on the scheduling information. For example, the terminal device determines the equivalent bandwidth based on at least one of time domain information, frequency domain information, and frequency hopping information of the uplink.

In some embodiments, the transmission configuration above includes at least one of: the method comprises the steps of sampling data of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a digital chip of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a radio frequency front end of the terminal equipment, the working bandwidth of the digital chip, the working bandwidth of the radio frequency front end, the working voltage of the digital chip, the working voltage of the radio frequency front end, the working frequency of the digital chip and the working frequency of the radio frequency front end. As described above, the default transmission configuration may additionally or alternatively be determined based on the configured BWP bandwidth 501 for the terminal device 120. As an example, when the terminal device 120 determines that the difference between the first time period and the second time period is greater than or equal to the third time period required to adjust the above configuration for the equivalent bandwidth (e.g., 510, 520, 530, and 540), the terminal device may perform a corresponding adjustment to the above configuration to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device 120 may adjust the data sampling rate (e.g., decrease the sampling rate), adjust the number of lanes of the chip or front-end (e.g., decrease the number), adjust the operating voltage (e.g., decrease the voltage), etc., for an effective bandwidth that is smaller than the configured BWP bandwidth. Thus, by performing bandwidth reduction transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device 120 can reduce power consumption of not only the radio frequency device but also baseband and intermediate frequency processing on the data transmission link. In this way, the terminal device 120 can achieve a good energy saving effect.

Alternatively, the terminal device 120 may also be configured based on its own capabilities for determining a time advance point, which may also be referred to as a third time point in the present disclosure, with sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 determines a third point in time, a duration between the third point in time and the second point in time at which to begin transmitting the set of uplink channels being greater than or equal to a third duration required by the terminal device 120 to adjust a transmission configuration (e.g., the transmission configuration described above) of the reduced bandwidth transmission. The terminal device 120 determines whether data preparation and/or preprocessing (e.g., to obtain Tbsize for a set of uplink channels) has been completed based on the scheduling information at the third point in time. Then, if the terminal device 120 has completed data preparation and/or preprocessing at the third point in time, the terminal device 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. Otherwise, if the terminal device 120 does not complete the data preparation and/or preprocessing at the third point in time, the terminal device 120 determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

Returning to fig. 4, if the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 adjusts (425) the transmission configuration for a set of uplink channels as described above. Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, terminal device 120 may also determine whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for a set of uplink channels based on differences between equivalent bandwidths (e.g., 510, 520, 530, and 540) and configured BWP bandwidths (e.g., 501). The terminal device 120 determines a difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the bandwidth of the partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device based on the scheduling information. If the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. Otherwise, if the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is less than the threshold, the terminal device 120 determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. For clarity, determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission based on bandwidth differences is described with continued reference to fig. 5B-5.

As shown in fig. 5B and 5C, network device 110 schedules a single or multiple channels to terminal device 120 in the time slots of transmit envelope 501, with the resulting equivalent BWP bandwidth (e.g., equivalent bandwidths 510 and 520) occupying substantially the entire allocated BWP. In this case, the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the configured bandwidth may be small, for example, smaller than a threshold, and the terminal device 120 may determine not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. Since the benefits of reduced bandwidth transmissions performed in this case may not be able to compensate for the resources consumed by adjusting the transmission configuration.

As shown in fig. 5D and 5C, it is also possible that network device 110 occupies a small portion of the overall BWP bandwidth (e.g., equivalent bandwidths 530 and 540) for terminal device 120 in a relatively centralized distribution of configured channels. In this way, the equivalent BWP bandwidth of the scheduled channel or channels forming a transmission envelope is much smaller than the configured BWP bandwidth. In this case, the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the configuration bandwidth is large, for example, may be greater than a threshold, and the terminal device 120 may determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. As reduced bandwidth transmissions in this case may provide a greater reduction in power consumption.

Additionally, in some cases, the terminal device 120 may receive additional scheduling information associated with the plurality of slots for the transmission envelope after completing the adjustment of the transmission configuration (e.g., determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission). Returning to fig. 4, in some embodiments, after the terminal device 120 adjusts the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device 120 receives (426) further scheduling information for scheduling a further uplink channel, which may also be referred to as a second uplink channel in the present disclosure. The terminal device 120 determines (428) whether the transmission of the further uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels. Additionally, the terminal device 120 determines (428) whether the transmission of the further uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels. Then, if the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of a set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 performs reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels and the further uplink channel. Otherwise, if the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 relinquishes the transmission of the further uplink channel.

Additionally, in one example, the terminal device 120 performs reduced bandwidth transmission by:

1. The operating bandwidth of the default configuration chip logic and the RF configuration is on the BWP bandwidth configured by the network RRC to the terminal device 120 each time before the transmission information is acquired.

2. The information of each channel of the present transmission envelope is obtained from the terminal device 120, including information of time domain, frequency domain, modulation mode of scheduling channel, MIMO layer number, frequency hopping, etc., and Tbsize which can be accommodated by the configuration channel is estimated.

3. The terminal device 120 obtains information of each channel of the present transmission envelope, including time domain, frequency domain information, modulation mode, K1/K2 scheduling advance, tbsize. The terminal device 120 evaluates whether the equivalent BWP bandwidth is sufficiently smaller than the network configuration BWP, reaches a reduced working BWP bandwidth sufficiently smaller than the RRC configuration BWP bandwidth, and simultaneously evaluates whether there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth configuration. If the operating bandwidth BWP bandwidth can be reduced and the reduced bandwidth configuration advance is sufficient, the terminal device 120 reconfigures (new operating bandwidth) according to the reduced operating BWP bandwidth.

4. The terminal device 120 reconfigures the operating bandwidths of the RF front-end and the chip logic according to the reduced operating BWP bandwidth; determining the number of transmission paths, the working bandwidth, the working voltage and the working main frequency of the RF front end according to the working bandwidth, the MIMO layer number and the transmission power and/or the estimated transmission power; according to the working bandwidth, tbsize and MIMO layers, and the transmitting power and/or the estimated transmitting power and the transmitting advance, the number of transmitting channels of the starting signal is dynamically determined, and the working bandwidth, the working voltage and the working main frequency required by the transmission are determined.

In another example, the terminal device 120 performs reduced bandwidth transmission by:

1. before the terminal device 120 performs self-reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 performs statistics of the transmission information. The statistical information comprises K1/K2, and the information such as the time sequence from receiving DCI to transmitting the group of uplink channels, the time sequence of receiving ACK feedback by PDSCH and the like; information for statistically influencing emissions; after the statistics are completed for these information; and then the judgment of self-reducing bandwidth is carried out.

2. The terminal device 120 sets a scheduling advance of the scheduling channel according to its own capability (for example, a time length required for the terminal device 120 to adjust the transmission configuration); and the advanced point is used for determining the self-reduced bandwidth transmission judgment of the UE.

3. Based on the statistical information, it is confirmed whether the scheduling timing of the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 has enough time for the configuration of the self-reduced bandwidth transmission according to the statistical configuration, and if the statistical scheduling advance has enough configuration, the terminal device 120 performs the self-reduced bandwidth transmission.

4. The terminal device 120 determines whether to collect the scheduling information according to the uplink and downlink scheduling configuration information and the scheduling advance for the present transmission envelope, and if the scheduling information is not collected at the expiration time point of the scheduling advance, configures the working bandwidth according to the RRC BWP bandwidth. If the scheduling information collection is completed before the schedule advance expiration time, the UE reconfigures according to the reduced working BWP bandwidth. The scheduling advance is set according to the configuration advance of the statistical information.

5. After the terminal device 120 obtains the information of each channel of the current transmission envelope, including the information of the time domain and the frequency domain, the modulation mode of the scheduling channel, the MIMO layer number, the frequency hopping, and the like, the terminal device 120 evaluates Tbsize that the configuration channel can accommodate.

6. The terminal device 120 obtains information of each channel of the pattern, including time domain, frequency domain information, modulation mode, K1/K2 scheduling advance, and after evaluating Tbsize, the terminal device 120 evaluates whether the equivalent BWP bandwidth is sufficiently smaller than the network configuration BWP, for example, the equivalent bandwidth is sufficiently smaller than the configuration BWP bandwidth. The terminal device 120 also evaluates whether there is enough time to adjust the transmission configuration. If the equivalent bandwidth (or corresponding operating bandwidth) is sufficiently smaller than the configured BWP bandwidth and the reduced bandwidth configuration advance is sufficient, the terminal device 120 adjusts the transmission configuration according to the equivalent bandwidth (or corresponding operating bandwidth).

7. The terminal device 120 configures the working bandwidths of the RF front end and the chip logic according to the equivalent bandwidth (or the corresponding working bandwidth); based on the operating bandwidth, the number of MIMO layers, and the actual or estimated transmit power, the terminal device 120 determines the number of transmit paths, the operating bandwidth, the operating voltage, and the operating primary frequency of the RF front-end. Then, the terminal device 120 determines the number of data paths, the working bandwidth, the working voltage and the working main frequency of the digital chip logic according to the equivalent bandwidth (or the corresponding working bandwidth), tbsize and the MIMO layer numbers, and the transmission power and/or the estimated transmission power and the transmission advance.

8. If the terminal device 120 is configured to reduce the bandwidth by itself, there is still a need for scheduling transmission to be performed in association with the current transmission envelope, and the terminal device 120 calculates whether the frequency domain range of the schedule exceeds the current operating BWP bandwidth of the terminal device 120 (e.g., the operating bandwidth determined based on the equivalent bandwidth and the predetermined granularity as described above), and whether the frequency domain is ahead of the current operating BWP bandwidth. If none, the scheduled channel transmission remains within the self-reduced bandwidth range of the terminal device 120, and the transmission may be performed. If so, the scheduled channel is initiated this time.

9. The terminal device 120 updates the scheduling statistics to ensure that subsequent transmission schedules are included in later decisions.

As such, the terminal device 120 may determine whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmissions for the scheduled set of uplink transmissions based on its capabilities and the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the configured bandwidth. If reduced bandwidth transmission is performed, the terminal device 120 not only reduces the power consumption of the radio frequency devices, but also reduces the power consumption of baseband and intermediate frequency processing over the data transmission link. In this way, the terminal device 120 can achieve a better energy saving effect.

In addition or alternatively, in addition to determining multiple transmit configurations for uplink channel transmission at the terminal device side and/or performing reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the network device 110 may also employ a related schedule for a certain terminal device to configure the equivalent bandwidth for that terminal device. Embodiments in which the network side configures a set of frequency bands using the associated schedule are discussed below with reference to fig. 6-7H.

Fig. 6 illustrates a signaling process 600 for a network device to configure a set of frequency bands in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. For clarity of discussion, and without any limitation, signaling process 200 will be discussed in conjunction with fig. 1.

In signaling process 600, network device 110 determines (610) that terminal device 120 is to be scheduled to transmit a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. In turn, the terminal device 120 determines (620) a position of a set of frequency bands for transmitting a set of uplink channels in the partial bandwidth BWP to configure an equivalent bandwidth between an upper frequency limit and a lower frequency limit of the set of frequency bands. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 determining the location of the set of frequency bands in the partial bandwidth BWP comprises, for a first uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device 110 determining a first center frequency of a first frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the first uplink channel. For example, if the first uplink channel is a statically or semi-statically configured uplink channel (e.g., SRS), the network device 110 may predetermine the first center frequency. In another example, if the first uplink channel is an uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH, or SRS) dynamically scheduled by the DCI, the network device 110 may store the first center frequency of the first uplink channel during scheduling of the uplink channel. In some other embodiments, the network device 110 may also determine the first center frequency in any other manner.

Additionally, after determining the first center frequency, for another uplink channel of the set of uplink channels (the other uplink channel may also be referred to as a second uplink channel), the network device 110 determines a second center frequency of a second frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the second uplink channel such that a frequency difference of the second center frequency from the first center frequency is less than a threshold. For clarity, the determination of the first center frequency and the second center frequency is discussed with reference to fig. 7A-7H.

Fig. 7A-7G are diagrams of a plurality of sets of uplink channel transmissions scheduled by a network device and corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7A-7G, bandwidth 701 is a BWP bandwidth configured by network device 110 for a certain terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120 or terminal device 130). Bandwidths 710 and 720 are the effective bandwidths of the uplink channels scheduled for a certain terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120 or terminal device 130). Bandwidth 730 is the effective bandwidth of an uplink channel scheduled for a terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120) without employing related scheduling (e.g., the determination of the first center frequency of the first frequency band and the second center frequency of the second frequency band for uplink transmissions described above). Bandwidth 750 is the effective bandwidth of the uplink channel scheduled for terminal device 120 with the associated schedule. Bandwidth 740 is the effective bandwidth of an uplink channel scheduled for another terminal device (e.g., terminal device 130) without employing the associated schedule. Bandwidth 760 is the effective bandwidth of the uplink channel scheduled for terminal device 130 if the associated schedule is employed.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 7A, for each terminal device, network device 110 need only schedule uplink transmissions within the configured BWP bandwidth for that terminal device, without considering the association between these uplink transmissions. In this way, it may be caused that the equivalent BWP bandwidth may occupy a substantial part of the configuration BWP bandwidth or may occupy the entire configuration BWP. Additionally, the equivalent BWP may also be smaller, i.e. occupy a smaller portion of the configured BWP bandwidth. However, the size of the equivalent bandwidth will be random, which will be detrimental for the terminal device to reduce the device power consumption. As described above, network device 110 may make the difference between the center frequencies of channel 1, channel 2, and channel 3 less than a threshold by determining the center frequencies of these channels, respectively. Network device 110 thus configures an equivalent bandwidth of a set of frequency bands for transmitting a set of uplink channels.

As shown in fig. 7B, by relatedly determining the center frequencies of channel 1, channel 2, and channel 3, the effective bandwidth 720 of a set of frequency bands for a scheduled set of uplink channels is significantly reduced relative to the original equivalent bandwidth 710. In this way, the terminal device that is relatedly scheduled with the set of uplink channels can adjust the transmission configuration based on the smaller equivalent bandwidth 710. In this way, the network device 110 may facilitate a reduction in power consumption of the terminal device.

Additionally, as shown in fig. 7C and 7D, as an example, network device 110 schedules uplink channel transmissions for terminal device 120 and terminal device 130, respectively, within configured BWP bandwidth 701. In fig. 7C, network device 110 randomly schedules different uplink transmissions for terminal device 120 and terminal device 130, respectively. In this way, even though each uplink channel scheduled for each terminal device occupies only a small frequency band, the equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels scheduled is large for each terminal device. In fig. 7D, network device 110 may determine the center frequencies of a set of frequency bands for the uplink channels of each terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120 or terminal device 130) as described above such that the difference between the respective center frequencies of the set of frequency bands for these channels is less than a threshold. In this way, the equivalent bandwidth 750 of the frequency band for the set of uplink transmissions of terminal device 120, and the equivalent bandwidth 760 of the frequency band for the set of uplink transmissions of terminal device 130 are both significantly smaller than the bandwidth 701 of the configured BWP.

Further, as described above, the first center frequency may be a center frequency of a frequency band of an uplink channel for static scheduling or a center frequency of a frequency band of an uplink channel for dynamic scheduling. As shown in fig. 7E-7F, the first center frequency 770 is the center frequency of the statically scheduled SRS. In this case, the first center frequency is predetermined. Alternatively, the first center frequency 780 is the dynamically configured center frequency of uplink channel 1. In this case, the network device 110 stores the first center frequency 780 for use in determining the second center frequency.

Additionally or alternatively, network device 110 may also configure the equivalent bandwidth by selecting an appropriate frequency hopping range for an uplink channel in a set of uplink channels. In some embodiments, for a third uplink channel in the set of uplink channels, network device 110 determines that a third frequency band in the set of frequency bands corresponding to the third uplink channel is a frequency hopping frequency range. For this third uplink channel, the network device 110 may select a smaller candidate frequency range from among a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range. Additionally, the network device 110 may also determine a third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range such that a frequency difference of the third center frequency from the first center frequency is less than a threshold. As shown in fig. 7G-7H, the first center frequency 710 may be a center frequency of a frequency band for a statically configured upper first uplink channel (e.g., SRS). Further, the terminal device 120 selects a second center frequency of the frequency band for a second uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH) such that a difference between the second center frequency and the first center frequency 770 is less than a threshold. Further, for a third uplink (e.g., PUCCH), the terminal device selects a smaller candidate frequency range from among a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range for the PUCCH. And, the terminal device 120 also determines a third center frequency of the hopping frequency range such that the frequency difference of the third center frequency from the first center frequency 710 is less than the threshold. In this way, network device 110 may set the equivalent bandwidth of a set of uplink channels scheduled to the terminal device to be within a relatively small bandwidth.

Alternatively, as shown in fig. 7H, the first center frequency 780 is the center frequency of the dynamically configured uplink channel 1. In this case, the network device 110 stores the first center frequency 780. Further, the terminal device determines the hopping frequency range for channel 2 and the third center frequency of the hopping frequency range in the same manner as in fig. 7G described above.

In this way, when the network device 110 schedules different channels to the terminal device in different time slots within one transmission envelope, the network device 110 performs a correlation constraint for the resource blocks allocated for channel scheduling. In this way, the channel or channels scheduled over the time slots within the transmit envelope are scheduled to be as small as possible within the equivalent BWP bandwidth. Further, the terminal device can self-reduce the operating BWP bandwidth according to the equivalent BWP bandwidth in order to operate the terminal device in a lower power consumption mode.

Additionally or alternatively, all of the above-described embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented either alone or in any combination, and the present disclosure is not limited in any way.

Fig. 8 illustrates a flowchart 800 implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In one possible implementation, the method 800 may be implemented by the terminal device 120 or the terminal device 130 in the example environment 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 800 may also be implemented by other electronic devices independent of the example environment 100. As an example, the method 800 will be described below as being implemented by the terminal device 120 in the example environment 100A.

At 810, the terminal device 120 determines that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping. At 820, the terminal device 120 determines a plurality of transmit configurations corresponding to a plurality of resource block ranges. At 830, terminal device 120 transmits an uplink channel based on the plurality of transmit configurations. In some embodiments, transmitting the uplink channel comprises: the terminal device 120 generates a transmission configuration instruction for a transmitting means of the terminal device 120 based on a transmission configuration of the plurality of transmission configurations, the transmission configuration instruction indicating a resource block range corresponding to the transmission configuration of the plurality of resource block ranges to the transmitting means. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 uses a transmit configuration instruction to drive a transmitting device to transmit an uplink channel over the corresponding range of resource blocks. In some embodiments, the transmitting device includes at least one of a power amplifier, digital predistortion, average power tracking, envelope tracking device. In some embodiments, the plurality of resource block ranges are distributed within a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device, and the bandwidth of each of the plurality of resource block ranges is less than the bandwidth of BWP. In some embodiments, the uplink channel includes at least one of: physical uplink control channel PUCCH, physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, sounding reference signal SRS, and physical uplink access channel PRACH.

Fig. 9 illustrates a flow chart 900 implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In one possible implementation, the method 900 may be implemented by the terminal device 120 or the terminal device 130 in the example environment 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 900 may also be implemented by other electronic devices independent of the example environment 100. As an example, the method 800 will be described below as being implemented by the terminal device 120 in the example environment 100A.

At 910, the terminal device 120 receives scheduling information for scheduling a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. At 920, the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. In case the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 transmits a set of uplink channels based on the equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels, 930. The equivalent bandwidth includes a bandwidth between an upper frequency limit resource block and a lower frequency limit resource block for transmitting a set of uplink channels. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: in case the terminal device 120 determines that the reduced bandwidth transmission is not performed for the set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 transmits the set of uplink channels based on the partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device 120. In some embodiments, determining to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In case the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In case the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

In some embodiments, determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: the terminal device 120 determines a first time period between a first point in time when scheduling information is received and a second point in time when transmission of the set of uplink channels begins. The terminal device 120 determines a second time period required to obtain a transport block size for the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. If the difference between the first time period and the second time period is greater than or equal to the third time period required to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. If the difference is less than the third duration, the terminal device 120 determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

In some embodiments, determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: the terminal device 120 determines whether a transport block size for the set of uplink channels has been obtained based on the scheduling information at the third point in time. If the terminal equipment 120 has obtained the transport block size at the third point in time, the terminal equipment 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. If the terminal device does not obtain the transport block size at the third point in time, the terminal device 120 determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

In some embodiments, the first point in time comprises a point in time when the latest scheduling information of the scheduling information for the set of uplink channels is received, and the second point in time comprises a point in time when the earliest transmitted uplink channel of the set of uplink channels. In some embodiments, the transmission configuration includes at least one of: the method comprises the steps of sampling data of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a digital chip of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a radio frequency front end of the terminal equipment, the working bandwidth of the digital chip, the working bandwidth of the radio frequency front end, the working voltage of the digital chip, the working voltage of the radio frequency front end, the working frequency of the digital chip and the working frequency of the radio frequency front end. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: after the terminal device 120 adjusts the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device 120 receives further scheduling information for scheduling a further uplink channel; the terminal device 120 determines whether the transmission bandwidth of the additional uplink channel is within the equivalent bandwidth; the terminal device 120 determines whether the transmission of the further uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels; and if the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of a set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 performs the reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels and the further uplink channel.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: if the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 relinquishes the transmission of the further uplink channels. In some embodiments, determining whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device 120 determines a difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the bandwidth of the partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device 120; if the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission; and if the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is less than a threshold, the terminal device 120 determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes at least one of: an offset between a time slot in which the scheduling information is located and a time slot in which the scheduled uplink channel is located; frequency domain information for a set of uplink channels; time domain information for a set of uplink channels; a set of modulation coding schemes, MCSs, for uplink channels; a number of multiple-input multiple-output, MIMO, layers for a set of uplink channels; frequency hopping information for a set of uplink channels; an estimated transmit power for a set of uplink channels; and the actual transmit power of a set of uplink channels. In some embodiments, the uplink channel comprises at least one of: physical uplink control channel PUCCH, physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, sounding reference signal SRS, and physical uplink access channel PRACH.

Fig. 10 shows a flowchart 1000 implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In one possible implementation, the method 1000 may be implemented by the network device 110 in the example environment 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 1000 may also be implemented by other electronic devices independent of the example environment 100. By way of example, method 1000 will be described below as being implemented by network device 110 in example environment 100A.

At 1010, network device 110 determines that the terminal device is to be scheduled to transmit a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. At 1020, network device 110 determines a location in the frequency domain of a set of frequency bands used to transmit a set of uplink channels to configure an equivalent bandwidth between an upper frequency limit and a lower frequency limit of the set of frequency bands. In some embodiments, determining the location of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain comprises: for a first uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device 110 determines a first center frequency of a first frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the first uplink channel; and for a second uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device 110 determines a second center frequency of a second frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the second uplink channel such that a frequency difference of the second center frequency from the first center frequency is less than a threshold. In some embodiments, the first uplink channel comprises at least one of: statically scheduled uplink channels; semi-statically scheduled uplink channels; and dynamically scheduled uplink channels. In some embodiments, the first uplink channel is a dynamically scheduled uplink channel, and determining the first center frequency comprises: network device 110 dynamically schedules the first uplink channel; and network device 110 stores the first center frequency of the first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel. In some embodiments, determining the location of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain comprises: if, for a third uplink channel in the set of uplink channels, network device 110 determines that a third frequency band in the set of frequency bands corresponding to the third uplink channel is a frequency hopping frequency range, network device 110 performs at least one of: selecting a smaller candidate frequency range from a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for a frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range; and determining a third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range such that a frequency difference of the third center frequency from the first center frequency is less than the threshold. In some embodiments, the uplink channel comprises at least one of: physical uplink control channel PUCCH, physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, sounding reference signal SRS, and physical uplink access channel PRACH.

Fig. 11 and 12 are schematic structural diagrams of a possible communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. These communication devices can implement the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiment, so that the beneficial effects of the above method embodiment can also be implemented. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device may be the network device 110 shown in fig. 1, the terminal device 120 or 130 shown in fig. 1, or a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal device or the network device.

As shown in fig. 11, the communication apparatus 1100 includes a transceiver module 1101 and a processing module 1102. The communication apparatus 1100 may be used to implement the functionality of a terminal device or network device in the method embodiments shown in fig. 2, 4 and 6 described above.

When the communication apparatus 1100 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the embodiments of the methods described in fig. 2, 4 and 6: the transceiver module 1101 is configured to determine a first stopping time of a serving cell of the terminal device. A processing module 1102 is configured to enter a neighbor measurement relaxation mode based on the first stop time.

When the communication apparatus 1100 is used to implement the functions of the network device in the embodiment of the method described in fig. 2: a processing module 1102 for determining that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping and determining a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges; the transceiver module 1101 is configured to transmit an uplink channel based on a plurality of transmission configurations.

For a more detailed description of the transceiver module 1101 and the processing module 1102, reference may be made to the relevant description of the method embodiments described above, which are not further described herein.

As shown in fig. 12, the communication device 1200 includes a processor 1210 and an interface circuit 1220. Processor 1210 and interface circuit 1220 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the interface circuit 1220 may be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1200 may further include a memory 1230 for storing instructions to be executed by the processor 1210 or for storing input data required by the processor 1210 to execute instructions or for storing data generated after the processor 1210 executes instructions.

When the communication device 700 is used to implement the method in the above method embodiment, the processor 1210 is configured to perform the functions of the processing module 602, and the interface circuit 720 is configured to perform the functions of the transceiver module 1201.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment chip realizes the functions of the terminal equipment in the embodiment of the method. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device, and the information is sent to the terminal device by the network device; or the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal device, which is sent by the terminal device to the network device.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the network equipment, the network equipment chip realizes the functions of the network equipment in the embodiment of the method. The network device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and the information is sent to the network device by the terminal device; or the network device chip sends information to other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the network device, which is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

It is to be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the application may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (DIGITAL SIGNAL processors, DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

In the embodiment of the present application, when the device is a network device, the device may be as shown in fig. 13. The apparatus may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio frequency unit (remote radio unit, RRU) 1310 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (also referred to as digital units, DUs) 1320. The RRU 1310 may be referred to as a transceiver module, which may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, or the transceiver module may be a module capable of implementing transmitting and receiving functions. The transceiver module may correspond to the transceiver module 1101 in fig. 11, i.e., the actions performed by the transceiver module 1101 may be performed. Alternatively, the transceiver module may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 1311 and a radio frequency unit 1312. The RRU 1310 part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals and baseband signals. The BBU 1310 is mainly used for baseband processing, control of a base station, and the like. The RRU 1310 and BBU 1320 may be physically located together or physically separate, i.e., distributed base stations.

The BBU 1320 is a control center of the base station, and may also be referred to as a processing module, and may correspond to the processing module 1102 in fig. 11, and is mainly configured to perform baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and so on, and may further be configured to perform actions performed by the processing module 602. For example, the BBU (processing module) may be configured to control the base station to perform the operation procedures described in the above method embodiments with respect to the network device.

In one example, the BBU 1320 may be formed by one or more single boards, where the multiple single boards may support a single access system radio access network (e.g., an LTE network), or may support different access systems radio access networks (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 1320 further comprises a memory 1321 and a processor 1322. The memory 1321 is used to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 1322 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation procedures described above with respect to the network device in the method embodiment. The memory 1321 and processor 1322 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication system. The communication system may comprise the terminal devices according to the embodiments shown in fig. 2, 4 and 6 described above, as well as the network devices according to the embodiments shown in fig. 2, 4 and 6. Alternatively, the terminal device and the network device in the communication system may perform the communication method shown in any one of fig. 2, 4 and 6.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a circuit, which may be coupled to a memory, and may be used to perform a procedure associated with a terminal device or a network device in any of the embodiments of the method described above. The chip system may include the chip, and may also include other components such as a memory or transceiver.

It should be appreciated that the processor referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, but may also be other general purpose processors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should also be understood that the memory referred to in embodiments of the present application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (erasable PROM), an electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (STATIC RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DYNAMIC RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double DATA RATE SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ENHANCED SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SYNCHLINK DRAM, SLDRAM), and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, the memory (storage module) is integrated into the processor.

It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative modules and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described system, apparatus and module may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed communication method and apparatus may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, for example, multiple modules or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The modules illustrated as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and components shown as modules may or may not be physical modules, i.e., may be located in one place, or may be distributed over a plurality of network elements. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing module, or each module may exist alone physically, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored on a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or contributing part or part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method of the various embodiments of the present application. The foregoing computer-readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limited to: the computer readable medium may include random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (ELECTRICALLY ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ ONLY MEMORY, EEPROM), compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), universal serial bus flash disk (universal serial bus FLASH DISK), removable hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

As used herein, the term "comprising" and the like should be understood to be open-ended, i.e., including, but not limited to. The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first," "second," and the like, may refer to different or the same object and are used solely to distinguish one from another without implying a particular spatial order, temporal order, order of importance, etc. of the referenced objects. In some embodiments, the values, processes, selected items, determined items, devices, means, parts, components, etc. are referred to as "best," "lowest," "highest," "smallest," "largest," etc. It should be understood that such description is intended to indicate that a selection may be made among many available options of functionality, and that such selection need not be better, lower, higher, smaller, larger, or otherwise preferred in further or all respects than other selections. As used herein, the term "determining" may encompass a wide variety of actions. For example, "determining" may include computing, calculating, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Further, "determining" may include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in memory), and so forth. Further, "determining" may include parsing, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of specific embodiments of the present application, and the scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily appreciate variations or substitutions within the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the terminal device determining that an uplink channel is to be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping;

The terminal equipment determines a plurality of transmitting configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges; and

The terminal device transmits the uplink channel based on the plurality of transmit configurations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the uplink channel comprises:

The terminal equipment generates a transmitting configuration instruction for a transmitting device of the terminal equipment based on the transmitting configuration in the plurality of transmitting configurations, wherein the transmitting configuration instruction is used for indicating a resource block range corresponding to the transmitting configuration in the plurality of resource block ranges; and

The terminal device uses the transmit configuration instructions to drive the transmitting device to transmit the uplink channel over the corresponding resource block range.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of resource block ranges are distributed in a part of bandwidth BWP of the terminal equipment; and

The bandwidth of each of the plurality of resource block ranges is less than the bandwidth of the BWP.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the uplink channel comprises at least one of:

the physical uplink control channel PUCCH,

The physical uplink shared channel PUSCH,

Sounding reference signal SRS, and

Physical uplink access channel PRACH.

5. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the transmitting device comprises at least one of a power amplifier, digital predistortion, average power tracking and envelope tracking device.

6. A method of communication, comprising:

The terminal equipment receives scheduling information, wherein the scheduling information is used for scheduling a group of uplink channels in a plurality of continuous time slots;

The terminal device determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information; and

In the case of performing the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device transmits the set of uplink channels based on an equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels, the equivalent bandwidth including a bandwidth between an upper frequency limit resource block and a lower frequency limit resource block for transmitting the set of uplink channels.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises:

based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission if the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; or (b)

Based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission in a case where the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises:

the terminal device determining a first time period between a first point in time when the scheduling information is received and a second point in time when transmission of the set of uplink channels begins;

the terminal device determining a second time period required to obtain a transport block size for the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information;

if the difference between the first duration and the second duration is greater than or equal to a third duration required to adjust a transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and

If the difference is less than the third duration, the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises:

The terminal device determining a third time point, the duration between the third time point and a second time point at which the transmission of the set of uplink channels begins being greater than or equal to a third duration required by the terminal device to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission;

In case the terminal device has obtained the transport block size at the third point in time, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and

In case the terminal device does not obtain the transport block size at the third point in time, the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the first point in time comprises a point in time when the latest scheduling information of the scheduling information for the set of uplink channels is received, and wherein the second point in time comprises a point in time when an earliest transmitted uplink channel of the set of uplink channels.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmission configuration comprises at least one of: the method comprises the steps of sampling data of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a digital chip of the terminal equipment, the number of channels of a radio frequency front end of the terminal equipment, the working bandwidth of the digital chip, the working bandwidth of the radio frequency front end, the working voltage of the digital chip, the working voltage of the radio frequency front end, the working frequency of the digital chip and the working frequency of the radio frequency front end.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

after the terminal device adjusts the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device receives additional scheduling information for scheduling a second uplink channel;

The terminal device determines whether the transmission bandwidth of the second uplink channel is within the equivalent bandwidth;

the terminal device determining whether the transmission of the second uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels; and

The terminal device performs the reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels and the second uplink channel if the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

if the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels, the terminal device relinquishes the transmission of the second uplink channel.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein determining to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises:

Based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines a difference between the equivalent bandwidth and a bandwidth of a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device;

If the terminal device determines that the difference is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and

If the terminal device determines that the difference is less than a threshold, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

15. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

The terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels, the terminal device transmitting the set of uplink channels based on a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device.

16. A method of communication, comprising:

The network device determining that the terminal device is to be scheduled to transmit a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots; and

The network device determines a location of a set of frequency bands used to transmit the set of uplink channels in a fractional bandwidth BWP to configure an equivalent bandwidth between an upper frequency limit and a lower frequency limit of the set of frequency bands.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining a location of the set of frequency bands in a frequency domain comprises:

For a first uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device determining a first center frequency of a first frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the first uplink channel; and

For a second uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device determines a second center frequency of a second frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the second uplink channel such that a frequency difference of the second center frequency from the first center frequency is less than a threshold.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first uplink channel is a dynamically scheduled uplink channel, and determining the first center frequency comprises:

The network device dynamically schedules the first uplink channel; and

The network device stores the first center frequency of the first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein determining a location of the set of frequency bands in a frequency domain comprises:

if, for a third uplink channel of the set of uplink channels, the network device determines that a third frequency band of the set of frequency bands corresponding to the third uplink channel is a frequency hopping frequency range, the network device performs at least one of:

Selecting a smaller candidate frequency range from among a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range; and

A third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range is determined such that a frequency difference of the third center frequency from the first center frequency is less than the threshold.

20. A terminal device, comprising: a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 or any one of claims 6 to 15.

21. A network device, comprising: a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the network device to perform the method of any of claims 16 to 19.

22. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 5, any one of claims 6 to 15, or any one of claims 16 to 19.

23. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 5, any one of claims 6 to 15, or any one of claims 16 to 19.